Jumble of Jelly Beans
by Oozora27
Summary: After accidentally breaking Kagari's beloved jar of jelly beans, Inspector Tsunemori Akane feels obliged to replace his precious sweets. Of course, some things are easier said than done, and this task is one of those things.


**Summary: After accidentally breaking Kagari's beloved jar of jelly beans, Inspector Tsunemori Akane feels obliged to replace his precious sweets. Of course, some things are easier said than done, and this task is one of those things.**

**[Set after the Gruesome Artworks case, before Kougami and Akane visit Saiga Jouji.]**

* * *

The first thing Enforcer Kagari Shuusei noticed when he returned from the washroom was a familiar sugary scent that hung in the air.

How odd. Usually, the office of the MWPSB Division 1 smelt of strong coffee from the vending machines, a must-have in everyone's diet in order to fight off the horror known as paperwork, and cigarette smoke, courtesy of Kou-chan and Karanomori-san, whenever the latter dropped by to offer the latest evidence that emerged from their cases. With both scents mingling together, Kagari often wondered how did Gino-san's plants survive, unless they were fake (he had declined any further probing from the youngest Enforcer).

Inhaling deeply once more, Kagari let out a sigh of contentment as he proceeded towards his workspace. If only the office could smell as sweet as his jelly beans more often… He would definitely be able to get more work done and –

Kagari stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze fixated on a spot on the floor near his table. Delicately framed in glistening shards of smoky glass, a stark contrast to the dull grey floor, were the contents of what used to be his beloved jar of sweet treats. The jelly beans were strewn all over the floor, fragments of a rainbow that brought him a never-ending pleasure.

Slowly raising his hand to give himself a particularly hard pinch, Kagari winced. Yep, he definitely felt the pain. Which meant this wasn't a particularly bad nightmare…

* * *

Down in the Comprehensive Analysis Laboratory, Karanomori Shion gripped her computer screens tightly as they shuddered from the sound waves of a pained howl that seemed to have originated from the upper floors of the MWPSB building.

_Must be the testing of those new stun batons, _she considered. _Which poor soul got shocked though…_

* * *

There are several subtypes of volcanic eruptions, such as the Hawaiian eruptions, the submarine eruptions, and the Strombolian eruptions, with each one increasing in strength and intensity. The strongest of them is the "Ultra Plinian", a powerful eruption which resembles the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which was famous for the burying and destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii.

All this information was stored in Masaoka's cranium, ready to be recalled if anyone ever wanted to know more about volcanoes, which he doubted would happen unless Mount Fuji miraculously awoke from its 405-year-old slumber, and decided to greet Japan with a bang.

Speaking of volcanic eruptions, his gaze flickered over to his son, who seemed ready to do a Mount Vesuvius. In plain Japanese (as Kagari would request), he was about to explode.

Kagari's outcry earlier had certainly startled Masaoka himself, who had jolted in mid-type, causing the last paragraph of his report to be deleted in the blink of an eye, which he immediately amended with a quick tap of the holographic keys on his tablet. With Kunizuka, although her face was devoid of any emotion, her fingers had slipped, causing the guitar magazine she was browsing through to kiss the floor at the speed of sixty kilometres per hour.

No one was expecting the bespectacled Inspector to be the most affected of them all.

Inspector Ginoza Nobuchika was currently hacking out his lungs, his eyes streaming profusely while his face was tinged with red. Traces of the culprit that had almost led him to an earlier death by choking ran down the screen of his computer in brown streaks. A cup of coffee, which no doubt belonged to the choking Inspector, was wedged in between two stacks of case files.

Worried for his son, Masaoka was in the process of rising from his office chair when he felt a murderous aura seeping throughout the room, which seemed to originate from Nobu.

This did not bode well.

Thankfully, the other Inspector chose that moment to charge into the office, causing the evil aura to dissipate almost immediately. Masaoka raised an eyebrow at Akane, who was wielding a dustpan and brush, items one would hardly expect an Inspector to carry at any time.

When Akane noticed Kagari frozen at the exact same spot where he had been since making the horrifying discovery, the dustpan and brush were rudely abandoned on the floor while the female Inspector apologized to the youngest Enforcer profusely, bowing sincerely in a manner that resembled the one she had made during their first meeting.

"I'm very sorry, Kagari-kun! I was going to clean up the mess and inform you, but it took me too long to find the cleaning drones and…" Akane trailed off to examine Kagari's current facial expression. It seemed as if all the light had been drained from the once gleaming eyes of the Enforcer, leaving behind a shadow of his former, cheerful self.

It had been a big mistake to attempt to carry all those case files by herself. Although an off-duty Kougami-san had offered to help her with half of the load, she had politely refused his offer (he was not officially on duty, and it would be rather selfish of her to accept his assistance.) This had led to her staggering slightly as she made her way to her workspace, causing the haphazardly-arranged folders in her arms to merely _graze_ against a particular jar of jelly beans, sending it plummeting off the edge of the table like a bungee jumper (her grandmother had told her of the adrenaline-inducing stunt, which caused a younger Tsunemori Akane to turn a slight shade of green upon hearing the tale).

A horrified Akane had then flung the offending folders onto her desk before stooping to take the damage into account. Deciding to clean up the mess before anyone could sustain injuries from the glass shards, the female Inspector burst out of the office to find a cleaning drone, unintentionally startling a pair of Inspectors who were walking down the corridor.

Speaking (or would it be thinking?) about startling people, this brought Akane back to the main issue at hand: Enforcer Kagari Shuusei's depression.

Since she had broken his jar of sweet treats in a moment of carelessness, it was only right of her to replace it, was it not?

(It would also help in snapping him out of his funk.)

However, there was a possibility that Ginoza-san would refuse her request. After all, he was the least friendly of all the Inspectors that she knew, especially when it came to interacting with the Enforcers.

If Akane was going to replace Kagari's jar of jelly beans, she needed a plan.

* * *

A/N: Although this story was supposed to be a one-shot, I decided to split it into two parts so that it would be a little smoother. Not sure what others would think about it though.

My mid-year examinations just ended recently, though I have a major one coming up in 9 days. With a barrel or two of luck, I should be able to get that desired A1 -crosses fingers-

That would mean that the second part to this story won't be up for a good while. Please bear with it!

Inspiration for this story came from Sleepovers, a one-shot from Isis Lied. This writer has great stories, and is an awesome Kagari :)


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